11/10/2015

Monthly Miles Memo #94

Filed under: — Aprille @ 2:29 pm

Dearest Miles,

Well, hello, my little rock star.  Your dad was bemoaning your Halloween costume choice—not because it wasn’t cool, just because it seems like your first “big kid” costume.  You were the lead singer of the band the Black Bot Boys, which is mostly you with some help from Tobin.  We recorded your song and shot a video for it, which is steadily accumulating views on YouTube.  It has almost 200 now.  Mubby and Skitter tell us that about fifty of those views are from them playing it for cousin Aleks.  They were caring for him for a couple of days last week, and apparently it was the only cure for the diaper change blues.

We’ve had a lovely fall, with lots of gorgeous days for playing outside.  Now that we’ve changed back to Central Standard Time, it’s too dark to play outside after dinner, and with you not getting out of school until 3:45, there’s barely any time after school.  Still, you’ve taken good advantage of weekends.  We went out to Nana and Papa’s farm a couple of weeks ago, and you had pretty much the best day ever.  You jumped across hay bales, rode with Papa on the 4-wheeler, and played around with Nash.  Uncle Michael very generously gave you several Lego sets, so you and Tobin and your dad have spent recent dark evenings downstairs working on those.  Callum hasn’t choked on any yet, so you guys must be doing a good job of keeping them out of his reach.

You’ve got parent-teacher conferences coming up in a few days, and I’m looking forward to hearing your teacher’s perspective on how things are going.  You don’t seem to have any particularly close friends in school this year, though from what I can tell you get along with everyone.  You mention various friends you play with at recess, but they change all the time.  I hope you have the social support you need.

I guess that’s one benefit of having two brothers.  You’ll have lifelong friends who will be around whether you want them to be or not.  I wish Uncle Tyler’s schedule were more flexible, because it would be so much fun to do things like go on vacation together with his family.  I hope you and your brothers remain close as adults.  That’s something that hadn’t really occurred to me when I was first thinking about having children.  Not only do I have you guys for now, I have given you each other for the future.  Don’t squander it.  Family is important.

You’re actually a great brother.  Tobin can get on your nerves, but mostly you’re very kind to him.  You’re pretty much Callum’s favorite person in the world.  There are times when I can’t even calm him down, but a few silly noises and faces from you get him laughing.

One fairly big step you’ve taken lately is wearing lace-up shoes.  We figured you couldn’t wear Velcro forever, so we took the plunge.  Most of the time when I pick you up from school, your shoes are untied.  You can tie them, and we encourage you to double-tie them, but the laces are kind of a slippery synthetic material, and they seem to come undone pretty easily.  You also are still getting the hang of tying them, so your bows and knots aren’t quite as tight as one might hope.  But I guess that’s how it goes, and you’ll never get better if you don’t work on it.  You’re working on it.

As I mentioned above, your school schedule changed this year to a 3:45 dismissal.  It’s 4:00 by the time we get home, and I usually have to dive into making dinner or other evening preparations.  It makes me feel like I don’t have hardly any time with you.  In an effort to address that, we went on a Mommy-and-Miles date to the Java House last Saturday.  You seemed into it when I mentioned the idea, and as we were getting ready to go, you asked, “Wait, Callum’s not coming?”  I understand that having a baby in the family means he’s pretty much always attached to me, but he’s big enough now that he can hang out with your dad for a while.  When I told you that it was just the two of us, you got a huge smile.  We got some snacks and beverages and played a couple of board games (Monopoly Jr. and Guess Who), and it was really nice to have some special time with you.

Our choir concert is coming up, and you’re going to nail it.  You’ve got a couple of really nice solos, and you’ve been having a lot of fun.  One thing was kind of funny—our director, Jean, asked you to say a few words to introduce a song.  You got a panic-stricken look on your face and refused.  I was surprised, because you can belt a solo into a mic in front of an audience (or an unsuspecting person who asked you for a trick to go with your treat) with no problem, but two sentences of extemporaneous speaking freaked you out.

Photo by Denny

So it goes.  You’ll keep learning and growing, just like you’ve done so much already.  Most of your pants are too short, and you’ve read so many books the school librarian can barely keep up with you.  I’m really happy with how you’re turning out.  The challenges will fade, and I suppose new ones will emerge, but we’ll deal with them.  You’ve taught me again and again that you’re a smart and interesting person, and I love getting to know you.

Love,

Mommy

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